Hornby-Dublo model railway, Bristol Castle and Stanier 8F

[muscleco]

Memories! Of my Silver King and the 0-6-2 tank...

[JimTLonW6]

@muscleco Glad you liked it, if nothing else Dublo was made to last! The 0-6-2 tank is an excellent little runner with very good haulage too.

[birdy1052]

was that very hard to set up ?

[JimTLonW6]

Very easy! It's probably more difficult to get hold of the stuff, and that's not so very difficult either!

I did do very simple electrics, when I next do a layout I want to improve this side of things. At the time when I did this video I think both trains were running from an H&M Powermaster, this wasn't a great success in my view and I bought a new twin controller with lots of amps available, which was a great improvement; I'd seriously recommend not to use old control gear.

[1998samtheman]

i love the tack do you know what the track code is as i would to make the same track?

thank

[JimTLonW6]

Well it's Dublo 3-rail, obsolete since about 1960! It was very robust, and there is a lot of it about on the second-hand market, prices are typically £1 per unit (more for points). If you want further details let me know and I'll tell you where you can get some,

[allsortsdude333475]

you have got the same engine as me:D

[karelfromholland]

*****

[vonpork]

Love the Hornby 3 rail layout. I had one 1958 -68. It evokes so many wonderful childhood memories. I'm now helping my son build a hornby layout in our attic.

[JimTLonW6]

I'm glad they like it! I like long trains too!

[LukeFern1]

This is my kids favourite video ever, they love the length of the trains.

[epiCnIGraRiNSeOUt]

That's one of the big things I like about N scale, you can do an 11-car commuter train and it's only 5 feet long.

[spokesmann]

Excellent work, good to see some 'proper length trains'

[JimTLonW6]

Thanks! I'm glad you like them. I do like to see a more reasonable length train too, although I think a real 8F would have pulled up to about 100 wagons. The Castle has 7 carriages on, I expect a typical train would had been about 12 or 13. I was limited, partly by what the engines can actually pull, but also because I had a reversing loop across the middle of the oval, this imposed an absolute maximum of around 25 wagons otherwise a train on the loop would have run into itself!

[trainboy1000]

wow lot of track but no trains how many loops!??

[JimTLonW6]

There were two double track circuits; I didn't use them all as it didn't make a very satisfactory video; two trains one on the inner set and one on the outer set seemed to work better.

The tracks in the foreground were carriage sidings for the station; as carriage stock would have obstructed the view I cleared them for the video, however I had nowhere else to put the mineral wagons!

[trainboy510]

ive started an ho layout but before than it was o scale so i started with a lot of trains not track i thinck ive got 24 cars and 2 engins

[hillwills]

Amazing! I think you run your trains way too fast, though.  At 4mm to the foot they are running at about 500mph!

[JimTLonW6]

In fact there were complaints when the Castle came out that it didn't go fast enough. Meccano replied by saying that it had been engineered to run at a scale 90mph which was in line with the original Castles.

[Ereldor]

Wow! What a layout! What scale is this in?

[JimTLonW6]

Hi, Thanks for your comment. Hornby-Dublo was 4 mm to the foot running on 16.5mm track, this means that it was modelled to an incorrect gauge of 4'1.5"; this has remained the British 'OO' standard, and is still used today.

[nickellfamily]

good grief, how many trains do you have?

[JimTLonW6]

I've got examples of most of the Dublo locomotives and rolling stock; it's fairly readily available at swapmeets. For the most part it's so well made it still goes well 50 years later (as you can see!)

I'm glad you liked my video.

All the best!

Jim

[Jonny4472]

that must have taken ages to build

[JimTLonW6]

Thanks for your comment, I must have missed it when it came in.

It was actually on the floor and only took a day to construct; there was a revision to the station area in the light of experience after a while. It ran pretty well while it was up. I am planning a reconstruction in more permanent form where it is at less risk from feet!

All the best!

Jim

[JimTLonW6]

Thanks, the Castle didn't run for 40 years; I bought it from the original owner who was 56 and had packed it away when he was 16. I got it running again, and it's a good performer. It has the original motor, not regarded as a success, but the new magnets that are now available have greatly improved its performance. The 8F also has the original motor with a new magnet.

[paulpatk]

fantastic the castle and the GWR carriages are superb